JULY 17, 2007 @ 8:22 pm - NB 405 to NB 101 Transition

Well sonofabitch, it's a two-fer Tuesday!!!

Getting back into the San Fernando Valley from the LA Basin between 3:00 pm and 10:00 pm is usually at a minimal pace, or a downright crawl. This evening, the NB traffic was moving about 20 miles per hour all the way from the 405/10 interchange to the 405/101 interchange. As I merged into the exit collector lanes to get onto the 101 N, I glanced over to my left and see this absolutely bitchin black Acura NSX driving next to me. The car is so low to the ground, I couldn't see the driver from the cab of my truck. You used to see these cars a lot on the highways of LA but not so much anymore.

I had already been on the road over 2 hours by this time. As I was easing my truck out from under the overpass of the NB 101 merge, the Acura signalled it wanted to get in my lane - which I gladly permitted since we weren't going anywhere fast anyways.

Along this stretch of merging lanes, Cal Trans has set up a series of standing traffic dividers, kind of like traffic cones but thinner and taller. The orange and reflectorized dividers are spaced about every 4 to 5 feet apart parallel to the lanes to keep the merging traffic of the NB 405 traffic separated from the NB 101 traffic until the road straightens out. It makes for much safer merges.

So here was the Acura who just moved in front of me now driving about 5 mph - much slower than the rest of traffic. Just a bit further along, the Acura came to a complete stop and turned on its right blinker. Strange, since the traffic dividers I described were all along our right side acting as a barrier so no one could dart into the merging traffic until a bit further up the road. The Acura eventually ran up it's RPMs, broke rubber and darted over 3 or 4 of the dividers (they are a break-away type) and crossed into the NB 101 traffic. The now run-over dividers popped back up to their semi-ridged previous state.

I kept an eye on the Acura as I drove ahead in the merge lane watching it as, in a very short distance, the car crossed 5 lanes of traffic making on-coming traffic come to a stop. Once the NSX got to the far right side of the 101 Fwy is became clear it was trying to get to the NB 101 at Haskell off-ramp. I think that keeping traffic from darting across the 101 to that off-ramp was another reason why the barrier was in place as well.

Only in maniacal LA will some Highway A-hole take a $100,000 car and do such a jack-ass thing.